Spirited rides (or revisting the hierarchy of needs)

"Abraham Maslow (1943) stated that people are motivated to achieve certain needs. 

When one need is fulfilled a person seeks to fulfill the next one, and so on." Link

Maybe Maslow was wrong. If you're so inclined, hear me out on this one.

At this point in my life, at the tail-end of middle age (almost halfway to a century), I am acutely aware that I am fortunate. No. That's not right. I am acutely aware that I am blessed. I am blessed  to be able to satisfy the first four psychological needs that Maslow identified. My biological and physiological needs, for air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sleep are pretty much a given.  A nice house in a nice neighborhood give me protection from the elements, security, order, law, stability, freedom from fear.  I enjoy love and belongingness in the form of friendship, intimacy, affection and love. My career provides some of the esteem needs such as achievement, mastery, independence, status, dominance, prestige, self-respect, respect from others. So according to the theory, I should be working on Self-Actualization - realizing personal potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences.

But this past weekend, I find myself once again returning to this sport and once again randonneurring takes me back to the basic needs. It is a place where breath (air), food, drink, shelter, warmth and sleep are no longer a given. Where I face the elements, vulnerability, and, yes, even fear.

I do keep the sense of love and belongingness. These are tools that I carry that as surely as I carry the things I need to survive. 

Maybe I jumped into the deep end of this discussion too soon. There's a back story. Forgive me. You weren't there. Let me fill you in on that before we come back to this. 

I was chasing a dream an idea: ride a full series in 80% of the time allowed under the RUSA rules and thereby earn recognition in a made up award. This 400K would be the third of the four rides in the series. My friends, my riding partners, Chris N. (from NJ), Paul S. and JB, all volunteered to ride with me - no questions asked. I have ridden so many miles alone that I neither expect nor need company but yet when they offer to accompany me, the offer fills my heart. 

The course was a flattish boomerang tour of south Jersey, including the Pinelands, with 100K between the official controls.

I have been training, though I rarely talk of it outside of with a few close confidants, and when the ride begins, I feel the benefits of my efforts.  Can I be honest, really stripped back honest with you? My GOD it feels good to be alive. Riding hard and fast. Feeling the graceful circular transition from effort to recovery. Lungs filling with deep breaths. Pushing hard against that invisible edge of maximum sustained effort. Being a human animal in full flight. Just as god and nature intended.

It feels even better to share that experience with a group. We dance a mad dance. We fly a flight of fantasy. We hunt an uncatchable game. I know why the herds run en masse. The sound of their hooves spurs them on, their collective breath enlivens them, their collective pounding of hearts beat an irresistible rhythm that irresistibly drives them forward. Always forward. Ever forward.

It rained twice that day. 

We did not stop for the morning rain. It fell lightly. Just enough to wet the road but not enough to slow us. I pull when I can, as long as I can. Follow me as I hurtle forward into this uncertain future.

We did not stop for the evening rain. It fell hard. Beating a steady stream against water proofed jackets and wool leg warmers. The rain washed the sweat from my eyes and cleansed my thought and spirits. I threw  back my head and stuck out my tongue to taste it as it fell, cold and wet, fresh from the sky.

Before, between, and during the rain, we rode.  No one in our group bitches about the rain. We dress for it and then ride through it. We do not curse the darkness.  We bring lights and we ride through it. We leave behind shelter and safety to face the elements with a sense of belongingness, a sense of self-esteem and a sense of joy.

So maybe Maslow was wrong. Unless that is what he meant by the peak experience.